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CNN Live At Daybreak

Royal Marines to Blow Up Ammo Cave in Afghanistan

Aired May 10, 2002 - 05:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: This just in, as they say. We do have a developing story to tell you about out of Afghanistan. Coalition forces are getting ready to blow up a cave complex and we believe that inside that cave are a bunch of ammo and weapons left behind by al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. British Royal Marines are involved in this. This is taking place in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan, as I said.

Our Bill Skinner is there now to tell us more about this -- good morning, Bill.

BILL SKINNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Right now we are south of Gardez in Paktia Province, as you said. Right now I'm standing in front of cave number four. These caves were discovered about three days ago by the British Royal Marines. We were flown here this morning by helicopter and I can tell you these caves are significant. The one I'm standing in front of right now is 30 to 40 meters, maybe even 50 meters deep -- thousands of rounds of ammunition, everything from small arms all the way up to mortars and artillery shells. Also, two T-55 tanks were found in this area that were damaged.

The Royal Marines were first alerted to this by some ammunition and other equipment that was found scattered among this area. Now, this was done probably by coalition bombing, as was the damage to the T-55 tanks. This is a significant find. The amount of ammunition here is tremendous (AUDIO GAP) some time later today along with the other three caves.

COSTELLO: Bill, OK, we're going to let you go because we're having technical difficulties now.

But thank you for that.

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